The present invention relates to a method of feeding a specific length of wrapping paper to a packaging section in a coin packaging machine and a device for carrying out the method.
Hitherto known method and device for feeding a specific length of wrapping paper to a packaging section where a predetermined number of stacked coins are packaged with the wrapping paper are constructed such that a cycle of wrapping paper feeding operations are generally carried out by way of the steps of forwarding a strip of wrapping paper drawn out from a wrapping paper roll to the packaging section by means of a pair of wrapping paper feeding rollers along a guide wall of a wrapping paper guide passage, firmly holding the leading end part of the forwarded wrapping paper by pressure contact of a plurality of wrapping rollers with a stacked structure of coins which are caused to rotate by the latter so as to tightly stretch the wrapping paper between the wrapping paper feeding rollers and the wrapping rollers, cutting off it to the specific length by thrusting it against a cutting knife and allowing the specific length of wrapping paper to be wound round the stacked structure of coins.
In the conventional method and device the specific length of wrapping paper to be wound round the stacked structure of coins is determined by the length of the wrapping paper guide passage extending from the cutting knife and the packaging section.
In such a country as Japan where there is only an appreciable difference in diameter among plural kinds of current coins packaging operations are practiced without any particular difficulty even though a constant length is employed for all wrapping papers to be used. To the contrary, in other countries, for instance, England where there is a substantial difference in diameter among current coins it is necessary to make an adjustment with respect to a required length of wrapping paper in dependence on the diameter of coins to be packaged.
To fulfill the above necessity there were proposed various methods. One of them is such that the position where the cutting knife is mounted is displaced along the wrapping paper guide passage depending on the selected diameter of coins. Other one is such that the cutting knife is stationarily mounted but the guide wall of the wrapping paper guide passage is divided into two parts at a predetermined position one of which is adapted to be displaced from the initial position in dependence on the selected diameter of coins so as to change the working length of the wrapping paper guide passage. Another one is a combination of the above-described methods.
Due to the arrangement made for the conventional methods, complicated displacement or adjustment mechanisms such as mechanism for displacing the cutting knife in the direction of feeding of the wrapping paper, a mechanism for displacing one of a pair of wrapping paper guide walls to a directional position different from that of the other one and others are required. In case of the conventional method in which one of the pair of wrapping guide walls is displaced to a directional position different from that of the other one it is found that a smooth and continuous wrapping paper guide wall surface is formed only for a certain kind of coins to be packaged but an angularly bent point is formed at the junction between the pair of wrapping paper guide walls when packaging other kind of coins and thereby a smooth guide wall surface fails to be obtained, resulting in an occurrence of incorrect feeding of the leading end part of the wrapping paper.
Further, it is recognized with respect to countries in which no adjustment is required for the length of wrapping paper depending on the various kinds of coins to be packed that in a certain country a short length of wrapping paper is employed for packaging operations but in other country a very long length of wrapping paper is required. To meet the requirement it is necessary to design the wrapping paper guide passage in dimensions larger than that for the first mentioned country. This causes a working space required for the wrapping paper guide section in a coin packaging machine to become enlarged with the result that the coin packaging machine is constructed in a bigger size. This means that a single design for the coin packaging machine cannot be commonly employed for all countries in the world.